Big Brother hosts Emma Willis and Rylan Clark-Neal have addressed the comments made by Winston McKenzie during his launch VT.
It was reported yesterday that UKIP had received a total of 165 complaints over a comment made by former UKIP candidate in his launch VT, saying “I’d cope with a homosexual in the house. I guess i’ll just have to stand with my back against a brick wall all the time.”
Since the comment, Big Brother presenter Emma Willis and Bit on the Side presenter Rylan Clark-Neal have addressed what was said, describing the comments on the same level as racism. As Winston entered the House on Tuesday night, he was heavily booed and was surrounded by a crowd chanting “off”.
Emma appeared on ITV’s This Morning yesterday and told hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that due to the packed schedule on launch night it was impossible for her to confront him on his views.
“It’s a long show, we’ve got a lot of people to get in, so to challenge somebody on that at that point is quite difficult,” said Emma. “Plus, if you challenge him then do you challenge everybody else on everything else? Then it’s a whole different show.
“I think we’ll have to kind of see what he’s like in the house and what happens in the house. I don’t think he’ll last very long… and then that’s when the challenges and the questions come.”
Later on, Rylan – who is openly gay himself – named Winston as the Housemate he’s most looking forward to interviewing on Big Brother’s Bit on the Side this series.
“I’ve had a little wall made by the art department,” he teased. “I’m gonna bring it out on his eviction and say, ‘Winston, I am a homosexual, there’s a wall if you feel you want to stand up against it’.”
On Winston’s comments, Rylan added: “In the profile VTs, people want to try and be controversial… but to say something like that, if you look at homophobia, it’s on the same level as racism. If someone said something about a black person or a white person there would have been an uproar.”
Celebrity Big Brother continues nightly on Channel 5 at 9pm.
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